Epoxy Clay Review: Apoxie Sculpt

May 16, 2011

As mixed media continues to pervade the craft arena, we see more and more products borrowed from other disciplines and industries. Such is the case with Apoxie Sculpt, and 2-part epoxy clay that, when mixed in equal amounts, cures into a rock-solid foundation for sculpting, joining, and texturizing.

Apoxie® Sculpt offers economy as well as performance. This 2-part product has a putty-like, smooth consistency, and is easy to mix & use. It is safe and waterproof with 0% shrinkage/cracking! Working time is 2-3 hrs. Cures hard in 24 hrs., and has a semi-gloss finish. Adheres to plastic, resin kits, wood, metal, ceramic, glass, polymers, foam, fiberglass, & more! Can be seamlessly feathered before set-up, or sanded, tapped, drilled, carved, lathed, or otherwise tooled after set-up, without chipping, cracking or flaking! Save time & money on finishing jobs by using ApoxieÂ® Sculpt colors. Simple water clean-up or use AvesÂ® Safety Solvent. Endless uses for artists, crafters, restorers, modelers, students, and more! Great for creating 3-D graphics and outdoor projects! Available in 12 colors.

Now, I just got plain, old white Apoxie Sculpt and to try it out, I “gloved up” and mixed some up.

It has a putty consistancy with no odor.

Use equal parts. I used a mini-scoop.

Mix until it’s a uniform color.

Mixing the putty-like epoxy clay was relatively easy, but I notice that it was pretty sticky and wanted to stick to my disposable gloves. I decided to try the Apoxie Sculpt in a silicone mold made from Amazing Molding Putty. It was a little challenging trying to get it to stay in the mold and not pull out by sticking to my gloves!

Now, while that was setting up, I pressed some of the Apoxie Sculpt into a bezel and started setting in some vintage chantons:

The chantons set easily into the putty and stayed put!

I tried to mold some beads, but got really frustrated with how sticky the Apoxie Sculpt. So I dug around on the site and found this timeline for working with the material:

Working Time Line Guide:

1/2 hour: Sticky & most adhesive

1 to 2 hours: Easy to work with

2 to 3 hours: Setting up, form-able detail

24 hours: Hard, cured & waterproof

OH! So that means that I should mix it up and let it “rest” awhile before trying to make beads or stamp into it!

Now, in the meanwhile, I had some clay on my table when I was working with my fish pond pump and a piece broke off. The threads that keep pushing the water through in one direction snapped off. So I used some of that Apoxie Sculpt to seal the parts together!

HA! I feel pretty McGyver after that! ; )

Here is a photo of my cured jewelry piece. I used my fingers to try and work the stones loose, but they stayed put:

My son used some Apoxie Sculpt epoxy clay to make personalized game pieces for our “Earth-opoly” set:

The finished pieces are solid, but not super-heavy.

And, while I was going to take the piece of clay and stamp into it after an hour or so, my life interrupted…and when I got back to it, it was too hard to stamp into. So there you have it- the problem with a slow set-up time!

Here’s my cured molded pieces and bead that I made.

Now, I took one of those cast pieces and sprayed it with a water-based spray ink. Surprisingly, the Apoxie is just porous enough that the spray sunk in and stained the mold beautifully! Here it is in the finished piece.

This piece is part of my Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist review- coming soon!

Now, since I was so pleased with the spray ink, I thought maybe I’d try painting one of the molded pieces with some acrylic paints.

First, I drilled it with my Dremel. Very easy!

The paint adhered very well- no chance of it peeling off!

I also decided to try sanding the bead. The instructions recommend wearing a face mask, because the dust is very fine particulate- it reminded me somewhat of chalk.

It was very easy to sand.

Here’s how it looked after I drilled the hold, painted it with Precious Metals Paint, and wired it up with some lovely crystal beads. Next to it is the final leaf mold, too.

So, let’s get down to the nitty gritty here. It’s really an amazing product, and for mixed-media artists, it’s a win. You can mold and sculpt it, use it to create structures, and then you can sand, paint, and drill it. All good stuff. But it’s kinda pricey at around $25.00 USD (with shipping) for a 1 pound set. That will go a long way, but you might want to try the 1/4 pound size to try it before you commit to the bigger spend.

I’m glad I got to try it out- and there will be a “round two” as there is a book to review that features Apoxie Sculpt. But in the meanwhile, feel free to leave a comment and ask any questions you might have- I’ll try to answer them the best I can!

Comments

Although I haven’t tried Apoxie Sculpt myself yet, I have heard of it and seen some beautiful works made with it. A few years ago we did a feature on our blog of a Doll Artist by the name of Bonnie Jones who made gorgeous dolls and sculptures combining polymer clay and Apoxie Sculpt. She used the Apoxie for the parts that needed extra strength, such as the branches of a tree which was part of the stand that supported a fairy doll she made of polymer clay. Her pieces were incredible and often sold for thousands of dollars. She had lots of good things to say about the Apoxie Sculpt product!

Great review! Thanks for sharing. I’m a big fan of an artist I stumped upon on etsy,Betsy **quist, (forget her name momentarily -rhinequist perhaps) and she seems to use a clay called crystal clay which costs $15 for 50 grams so apoxie sculpt, by comparison, is a steal!! She charges hundreds to thousands of dollars for her artwork and I simply can’t afford to buy from her. I’d like to try my own hand at making a sculpture over wood and use some old porcelain doll

Awesome review i’ve been thinking of making molds for my apoxie sculpt with some amazing putty so this is exactly what i was looking for. Quick question though. Did you have to use a mold release with your mold or did the apoxie sculpt come off easily after it cured?

Hello Jenny, thank you for the review on Apoxie Clay it was awesome, in the past days I been looking for reviews on this product and by far yours is the best I have found, I went to the Aves website which are the makers of this amazing product and in the Frequently ask question customer also ask to them about the stickiness of their product in their fingers, they reply to the customer that in deed is a bit sticky ,they say that one good solution is to slightly moist your fingers whit olive oil and that would help whit that problem. Thank you for the great information you have given to us , now I’m more than happy to buy this product to my futures projects. wooohooooooo!!!

I’ve been using Apoxie Sculpt to make sculptures for about a year, very happily. Recently I tried painting with artist oils instead of acrylics and it seemed the paint took forever to dry, over a week, and still rubbed off a bit. ?? Any suggestions?

I was wondering if apoxie sculpt work with diy latex molds? I’m using MOLD BUILDER to create a mold of a gun. Then my plan was to fill the latex mold with apoxie sculpt to create an apoxie cosplay gun. So would a latex mold work with this product?

Alex, thanks for your question. I don’t think so at all. A latex mold is someone flexible and is meant to be used with liquid pouring medium. Apoxie sculpt is a putty-like product and it would be very challenging to get the putty into the nooks and crannies of a larger-size mold. I’d recommend resin or plaster of paris, or some other liquid product for your mold. (PS- apoxie sculpt would be cool to sculpt or cast small details that you might need, tho.)

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Hi! I’m Jenny, the co-host of Hands On Crafts for Kids on PBS and the Head Dummy behind CraftTestDummies.com where you’ll find craft product reviews, tutorials, and craft industry news.

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Jenny Barnett Rohrs is Head Dummy and Pied Piper behind CTD, which focuses on reviews, tutorials, and craft industry news. Jenny has appeared on HSN, Scrapbook Soup PBS series, and is currently the co-host of Hands On Crafts for Kids on PBS.

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